ROPE AT CHILDREN’S POOL TO STAY YEAR-ROUND

Ruling could mark end of years-long dispute in La Jolla

In what supporters called a victory for seals, a judge ruled Friday that a yellow rope designed to protect the colony at Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla can stay up year-round.

The decision marks a possible end to the years-long battle over how people and the seals should share the slip of sand.

The rope is a largely symbolic barrier installed by San Diego officials years ago to encourage visitors to keep their distance during the seals’ pupping season, which usually runs from December through mid-May. It will now be a permanent fixture at the cove.

“We are all very happy that the final judgment has come down,” Bryan Pease, an attorney with the Animal Protection and Rescue League, said after the San Diego Superior Court hearing.

The animal-advocacy group had filed suit last year against the city of San Diego, whose officials and elected leaders have alternately supported and opposed a year-round rope through the years. Mayor Bob Filner has backed year-round installation of the rope.

Last month, he also ordered the beach to be closed from dusk to dawn after video from a round-the-clock camera at the site showed seals being sat on, kicked and punched one night in February.

The group Friends of the Children’s Pool, which has pushed to preserve public access at the cove, has filed a legal challenge to Filner’s order. That case is expected to be heard in court next week.

When the rope barrier is up, visitors are asked to stay behind it on a narrow strip of sand. There’s a three-foot opening on the beach for people to reach the water.

In announcing his ruling Friday, Judge Joel Pressman said he hoped the legal wrangling over the rope would end.

“It’s sad that this has gone on so long and caused such animosity and cost so much money for so many people,” Pressman said. “I hope that this hearing will put an end to the litigation. Hopefully, we can move on.”

The lawsuit followed a 2010 decision by the city’s Planning Commission to deny a City Council request to make the rope permanent.

The issue was later taken up by the California Coastal Commission, which endorsed keeping the barrier year-round.

Bernard King, attorney for the Friends of the Children’s Pool, argued in court Friday that the state agency’s support was based on conditions that have yet to be met. He pushed for the judge to delay his ruling, noting that the Planning Commission’s reasons for denying a year-round rope had not been reviewed in court.

Ultimately, Pressman said the City Council’s authority trumped the Planning Commission’s.

His decision pleased animal advocates such as Marilies Shoepflin, a La Jolla resident who attended the hearing. It’s a victory, she said, “for a little piece of nature in our city.”

Having a permanent barrier just makes sense, said Jim Fitzgerald, another animal supporter and La Jollan. “The seals are there year-round. They don’t go away,” he added.

Neither will advocates for greater beach access, said Ken Hunrichs, president of Friends of the Children’s Pool.

“It was not a good outcome (on Friday), but we’re not done,” he said without elaborating.